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shelagh
Shelagh Watkins
Emmelisa and her brother Dell have a happy and carefree life until their father becomes ill and is forced to retire at the age of forty-three.
Shelagh Watkins was born in Lancashire, UK, and graduated from the University of Leeds before completing a course in Information Technology at the University of Glasgow.
Look and Listen
Biography
I finished in 6th place in the bookart category of the Preditors & Editors Reader's Poll.
I'm Shelagh (that's the Irish form of Sheila!) I was born in Lancashire, UK and graduated from the University of Leeds before I moved to Scotland, where I completed a course in Information Technology at the University of Glasgow. I have lots of interests, including artwork, computing, reading and all forms of writing, but I particularly enjoy writing for children. I wrote Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine as a children's novel but there is more to the book than just a story, although readers are left to figure out the underlying philosophy for themselves.
When I began writing in 1998, I wrote my first unpublished novel, The Power of Persuasion. The story, set in Scotland, is about a married woman in her mid-forties, who writes a letter to a national newspaper in response to features written by a free-lance journalist employed by the newspaper. The journalist has quite a reputation as the newspaper's theatre and film critic
Despite the fact that the newspaper does not print the letter, the journalist seeks out the woman who wrote it and follows her around. The novel is very tongue-in-cheek and full of humour, but remains unpublished. But it will be out soon! I am currently rewriting the story and it should be finished in the next few months.
Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine is a story of flight, fantasy, adventure and courage. Emmelisa Planemaker is a strong-willed little girl but she misses her dad, who died when she was only five years old.
Emmelisa and her brother Dell have a happy and carefree life until their father becomes ill and is forced to retire at the age of forty-three.
After retirement, Mr. Planemaker decides to build a scaled, model airplane because he wants to build something lasting for his children but he dies before completing the task.
Three years later, Emmelisa is being seriously bullied at school by a group led by the notorious school bully, Mayja Troublemaker. When Emmelisa becomes increasingly withdrawn and unhappy. she seeks help and advice through the computer her father had used to locate specialist model aircraft companies in his quest to build a model airplane.
The computer is more than just a computer and full of surprises: Mr. A. Leon Spaceman being one of them! He guides the two children to Hardwareland, where they train to become astronauts and take on an unexpected mission into space: to follow their father's TRAIL OF LIGHT
I am also working on a sequel, Mrs. Planemaker's Flying Carpet, to my first published novel, which I hope to complete by the end of 2007.
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Stories of Strength
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Leo's Daughter: Mistress of the Web
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My first short story was accepted by Universe Pathways Magazine. Special thanks to George Sotirhos at Universe Pathways for reading my story and accepting it for the English version of the magazine.
Issue 5 of the English magazine with my story inside can be previewed on lulu.com:
Universe Pathways preview
My story, Leo's Daughter: Mistress of the Web, is on page 167.
You can find Issue 5 of the English magazine here:
Universe Pathways: Issue 5
Inspiration
In 1998 I wrote my first novel, The Power of Persuasion, without a clue about writing/publishers/agents. When the novel was finally completed and ready to send out, it was anything but flawless. Nevertheless, it was very well received by many of the top publishers in the UK. However, none of these publishers was prepared to accept a manuscript from a first time author.
"You need to find an agent," they said.
So I sent my work out to as many agents as I had done publishers.
"You need to be a published writer," they said.
The loop was sealed and I was on the outside of it.
I stopped trying to get my work published and I stopped writing. Then, in January 2002, my brother, Philip, died at the age of forty-three and left two young children, then aged five and eight years old.
I started writing again.
My brother was employed by British Aerospace, helping to build fighter planes but his ambition was always to build a house. Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine begins with a man who is a builder who wants to build a scale model aeroplane...
When my manuscript was finished, I decided to try the publishers and agents again but I had as much success the second time round as the first. This time, I was determined to succeed. I set up a website and started the hard graft of advertising my story on the Internet. The breakthrough came when I saw a novel on the web published by PublishAmerica, and I decided to send in a synopsis and the rest, as they say, is history...
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